Frank Perdue

Death is another oil change
hatched in my day's way.
Stupid death and stupid dying.
Who made it anyway?
The old hen pecking God?
Well, I'll cock and sock his nose,
make him roost the golden egg
chooking as I hearsing go.
For from the shells I sell to L-OC-als
I'll build feather couping waves,
Buy up Death's garage and scythe,
chicken farming from the grave.

About Mike

Post navigation

13 thoughts on “Frank Perdue”

There’s rumor that I heard this weekend about an interview between Frank Perdue and Oprah (while she was working for Baltimore Channel 13), wherein Oprah makes a remark about Frank looking like a chicken and he returns with a remark about her looking like a gorilla.

While not entirely unconceivable, this seems like prime urban myth material. There is some debate about it “here. But, note that some people boycotted Purdue chicken because of this supposed event, like one blogger here (2nd to last post from the bottom).

When my dad was in the hospital, I remember one of the ER nurses telling me this story about when Frank was to have broken his neck. Evidently, in some rather absurdly short amount of time, like 2 days after, he was back in the car driving around. To add to the further tallness to the tale, it was something to have occurred in more recent years when Frank was an older man. I can’t vouch for the validity of the story personally. Maybe Joe knows more about it. Myth or not though, the image of Frank riding around the ‘Bury oblivious to his broken neck was one I could never shake.

If your hunch is correct Pete, then Opera wasn’t so off the mark when she likened Frank to a chicken. She would have been more accurate however if she had of said he was “Frank Perdue, the Headless Chickenman”.

The story about Oprah and Frank Perdue is absolutely true! While I did not see it myself, numerous friends and most of my family did, as well as, one of my former employers (a god fearing individual) gave us all the nitty gritty as soon as he came into the office later that same day. It’s amazing that there isn’t anything on the internet to corroborate this. I guess Oprah knows how to clean up her act! I do know the screen went totally black while Channel 13 scrambled to get Richard Sher who was her former T.V. co-anchor back on the telly and move the big cheese, I mean the big “O” off stage where she belongs! I really can’t get over how she has buffaloed America. She apparently is a better actress than I gave her credit for! Now she is the poor victim….I suppose if James Frey commits suicide, Oprah will sleep better. She is just as responsible as Frey’s publisher….Her company should do a background check before all the hype for Frey’s book! Funny Oprah mentions her co-anchor but not by name in one of her exercise books with Bob Green. They apparently did not have a great relationship in Baltimore and believe me that the new and improved Oprah is nothing like her former self. It’s amazing how she was molded into something totally unrecognizable by most of Baltimore. It’s a shame some of her earlier tapings from Baltimore aren’t available to the highest bidder. I personally don’t believe one iota that comes out of her mouth!

Yes, It’s true. I saw it myself, I was home sick from school and with nothing else to do I was watching. It went like this. Oprah(circa 70’s, monster afro,pre-diet,pre surgery) on the set with
Richard Sher and Frank Perdue as their guest of the day. Oprah leans forward in her chair and calmly asks “What do you say to people when they say you look like a chicken?” Frank Perdue(ageing perfectly calm businessman, doesn’t bat and eye in response). He simply says” I don’t know, what do you say when people say that you look like a gorillla?” At this point you can see the whole set and Oprah lunges out of her chair hands and arms outstreched attempting to *^&$#$% poor Frank. At this point the camera was swept upward and we immediately went to a blank Tv screen. I kinda just sat there wondering about the condition of Frank Perdue. After maybe 5 minutes the People are talking set came back. Richard Sher and Frank Perdue (looking as if nothing happened) were on , but Oprah was nowhere to be found. She didn’t return to the set that day and nothing was mentioned about it that day. I’ve told a few people about this and they kinda just look at me. I’m glad that this has been talked about. This is absolutely not an urban legend.
I saw it with my own eyes. LOL

I saw the Oprah/Richard Sher show where Oprah “allegedly” was referred to as a primate. There seems to be a concerted effort to erase that nightmare moment from the annals of memorable TV moments because this morning I head an interview with Richard Sher on a local Baltimore morning talk show, and he denies that it ever happened. I LIKE MANY OTHERS HEARD IT. However, my recollection is not gorialla, but baboon.

Yes, I do recall seeing part of that interview on some show. Apparently Oprah asked frank Purdue “How do you feel when people ask about you looking like chicken” and he replied “Well same way you feel when people ask you about looking like a Gorilla” Something like that. Oprah was so infuriated by it that she ended the interview and stormed off the site. The interview was never aired.

It happened and it was funny. I was in high school in Annapolis MD and both Oprah and Frank Purdue were local peope of interest. Purdue was an upcoming chicken farmer and Oprah was cutting her teeth on channel 13. Purdue kinda did look like a chicken and Oprah pointed out the obvious. Purdue responded. It was funny and so it became a stink.

Was going to college in Maryland at the time, so I know it’s true because those of us who weren’t local didn’t know anything about The Oprah, but if you ate chicken you knew Frank Perdue. I remember it because a classmate was laughing his butt off at what Frank told “some woman reporter”. Somebody has to have a copy of the tape. Man, that would be worth a lot.

I am a black male baltimore resident who saw live the very same interview. It is important to put this in perspective. At that time Frank Perdue was a very wealthy old money Md business man with large land holdings on MD’s eastern shore. Oprah was a local anchor probably of modest means. At that time Frank Perdue did not use his likeness to his chickens as part of his ad campaigns that came later after Oprah became very wealthy. In keeping with the tradition in the black community to defend oneself by cracking back after being cracked on I felt as though Frank Perdue’s response was very appropriate and instinctual.